Fundraising Ideas

• Online Auctions: Use your ebay account to raise money for your Student Y.  Collect items from members or ask businesses to donate them.

• Partner with companies that will donate a percentage of their earnings to your organization

• Cow chip bingo: It's a country-style fundraising event that combines guessing where a cow will answer nature's call with a cow pie with raising funds for your favorite charitable cause.  Make sure you have other activities going on while you wait for the cow…

• Rubber Duck race: Use your school or local Y pool to race rubber ducks across the pool.  A hose is necessary to get the ducks moving.  The winning duck gets a prize!

• All Saints Day Cleanup: Create a flyer about your group and what you are raising money for.  Advertise locally with signs and in your local newspaper that you will be going around the day after Halloween cleaning up yards for a donation.  Head out the day after Halloween with rakes, gloves, and garbage bags.  Patrol the local neighborhoods, looking for yards with a mess.  Knock on doors and politely ask the homeowner if they would like you to clean up their yard.  Hand them your flyer and explain what your group is doing.  Find yards that need their leaves raked as well.

• Board Game Tournament: Assemble 4 person teams that will work together to accumulate points or you can allow individuals to participate.  Charge an entry fee for each team, in order to earn money for your charity.  Give a portion of the proceeds as the winning prize or get prizes donated from local businesses.  Decide if you are going to play with a time limit for each game so that everyone has the same chance and to keep things running on a schedule.  Definitely have a concession stand with coffee, soda pop, popcorn, chips, hot dogs, and bottled water to earn extra money.

• Break the Balloon: This is an easy fundraiser and can be incorporated into other events, such as a dinner fundraiser or fair.  You will need balloons, a helium tank, string, and slips of paper with prizes printed on them.  Go to the local retailers and explain who your group is and what you are raising funds for.  Ask if they would like to donate a prize in exchange for free advertising at your event.  On the day of the event, place the prize slips into the balloons, fill them with helium, and tie a string to them.  All balloons should have a slip of paper, even if it is just a thank you for participating, so they all look the same.  You may want the balloons to all be the same color to distinguish them from others at the event.  Sell the balloons telling people to hold onto them until a big announcement.  After all the balloons have been sold, instruct everyone to pop their balloon and see if they have won.  It will be humorous to see the different methods of popping the balloons.  Instruct the winners to come up and claim their prize.

• Butler Auction: This fundraiser will probably prove to be very popular with the underclassmen at your high school.  Let the seniors’ auction themselves off to be a butler for a day.  Butler responsibilities would be greet their “employer” as they arrive for school, carry their books, fetch their lunch, etc.  Get volunteers willing to auction themselves off for the day to the highest bidder.  Set rules in advance of what the butler is and isn’t responsible for, for example no test taking.  Identify what time the butler day starts and stops.  It would be up to each employer if they are going to institute a dress code or not.  Maybe their butler has to wear a silly hat or a Mickey Mouse t-shirt.  All students still have to attend class, so duties would be suspended then.  Have a special pizza dinner that evening for butlers and employers to thank them for their participation.

• Carnation Day: Sell carnations on Sweetest Day or Valentine’s Day.  Carnations are a lot cheaper than roses!  Sell the carnations ahead of time and deliver them on the arranged day.  Have some extras to sell the day of as well and order extras to give to all the teachers and your principle.

• Christmas Light Removal: After the New Year begins, offer to help take down Christmas lights in your neighborhood.  Advertise with your local paper or bring flyers with you to explain your cause. 

  Idea Websites:

  www.easy-fundraising-ideas.com

  www.fundraiserinsight.org

  www.charitymania.com

  www.channelone.com/life/school/fundraiser/

   

  Tips for Making an Ask:

• First, send a letter explaining your organization and what you are asking for (i.e. items for a silent auction, sponsorship for an event, etc).  Include the suggested amount you are looking for.

• Follow up with a phone call to schedule an in person meeting. 

• In your in person meeting, give more details about your organization and how their donation can help achieve your goal.  Bring materials that show off your organization (i.e. pictures from KYA or a service project, your Student Y pamphlet).

• If the person says no, follow up with them and thank them for their time.  “No” now doesn’t always mean “no” forever so keep an amiable relationship with your contact. 

• If they say yes, still follow up with them and thank them.  Be sure to send a note after the event thanking them again with a picture from the event. 

• Keep your donors connected to the organization by inviting them to see the event or speak to your group about their career.

• A personal connection always helps- even if it is your brother’s friend’s mother’s cousin- a connection is a connection.